This invention relates to improvements in devices used for stripping insulation from wires.
Because of the trend toward using smaller size printed circuit boards and integrated circuit type components in the fabrication of electrical equipment, smaller gauge size discrete conductors are being associated with this equipment. As the gauge sizes of these conductors become smaller, it becomes increasingly more difficult with the wire strippers presently available in the art to strip the insulation coating from the free ends thereof as required to enable these conductors to make electrical contact with the miniaturized circuits of such equipment.
According to the teachings of the present invention a wire stripper is provided comprising a support bar having inserted on the upper end thereof a die having a guide hole therethrough. An elongated flexible blade has its lower end clamped to the flat back surface of the bar and its upper cutting end extending part way up into the opening of the guide hole. During operation of the wire stripper, the inserting of the free end of an insulation coated wire to be stripped into the front of the guide hole causes the flexible blade to be automatically bent backwardly about its lower clamped end as the coated wire slides along the upper cutting edge thereof. When the cutting edge of the blade is positioned at the point where it is desired to sever the insulation coating, the coated wire is pulled out of the front of the guide hole. This causes the flexible blade to automatically straighten out against the flat back surface of the bar. This action results in a large force being exerted on the cutting edge of the blade which causes the opposite upper portion of the insulation coating on the wire to be crushed against the square edge provided on the rear of the guide hole and severs the bottom and side portions of the insulation coating. Continued pulling on the coated wire then tears apart any weakened portion of insulation coating not yet severed such that the bare wire portion of the coated wire can be pulled off of the severed insulated end portion which cannot pass through the opening provided between the blade cutting edge and the upper edge of the guide hole.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a wire stripper device that can be readily used to strip insulation coating off small gauge conductors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wire stripper device that may be inexpensively manufactured and hence marketed at a low cost.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wire stripper device that can be readily adjusted for stripping insulation coatings off different gauge size wires or conductors.